The science of reading movement has done much to improve instruction in foundational skills. But that hard-won progress may be reversed unless we also help children acquire the knowledge and vocabulary they need to understand complex text. At the same time, the science of learning movement has introduced many educators to evidence-based teaching…

Writing workshop, as conceived by Donald Graves and other US researchers in the 1980s, positively transformed the writing instruction of many teachers. However, others experienced considerable challenges as they tried to create workshop classrooms. This article examines the three historical conditions that defined workshop: (1) choice, (2) time…

This integrative research review explores in what ways multimodal writing, a newer writing approach, can promote multilingual adolescents' writing growth. This research review finds that multimodal writing benefit multilingual learners in providing flexibility in meaning making process, expanding and deepening learners' understanding of writing in…

Due to negative classroom experiences, lack of resources and access, the fear of the unknown, and at times a disconnect, students are often fearful of literacy learning (reading, writing)--and in some cases outright bored. This piece highlights a variation of Childs' "C.O.U.N.T." acronym, which addresses ways in which teachers can infuse…

We present 11 evidence-based practices for teaching writing to students. These include recommendations for teaching writing to younger students (aged 5-11) and older students (aged 6-18). The recommendations are based on findings from close to 1000 investigations. The proposed recommendations are (1) students need to write, but writing is not…

We present 11 evidence-based practices for teaching writing to students. These include recommendations for teaching writing to younger students (aged 5-11) and older students (aged 6-18). The recommendations are based on findings from close to 1000 investigations. The proposed recommendations are: (1) students need to write, but writing is not…

This essay explores the importance of formative creative writing in schools through a Key Stage 3 Creative Writing lunchtime club. I examine the power of unassessed and unconstrained writing through the work of one Year 8 pupil in the early stages of English language acquisition, who so often chooses to write about snow. Reflecting on her writing,…

Academic literacies (AL) research has made significant contributions to understandings of student writing and literacy across higher education and particularly learning development. However, researchers and practitioners both within and external to the AL movement have struggled to clarify the relationship between AL and pedagogy. English for…

English language learners (ELLs) need to build competency with the English language quickly, in order to benefit from classroom instruction. Reading Recovery offers theoretical underpinnings which support accelerated language acquisition with valuable applications in a classroom setting. Teachers need to develop language as a meaningful whole,…

In this article, I explore the paradigmatic boundaries between New Literacy Studies, translanguaging, and posthuman thought around language and literacy. This enquiry began with a recent encounter with emergent bilingual children in a community-based writing programme which caused me to 'rethink' some of my humanistic groundings and assumptions…

Afrofuturism is a storytelling genre that appears in multiple media types, including books, films, television, comics, music, and art. Drawing from genres such as science-fiction, fantasy, horror, magical realism, and other speculative genres, Afrofuturism re-envisions the past, present, and future in order to show what the Black community does…

The 2017 TEKS revision, the 2023 STAAR redesign, and the 2024 TCTELA conference theme call on literacy professionals to "forge the future of literacy" in Texas. Specifically, the future demands that we more fully integrate reading and writing instruction and that we help students develop a deeper understanding of author's purpose and…

Scholarly conversations in writing pedagogy increasingly centre our roles in reproducing epistemic and structural biases, and consequently the need to decolonize our curriculum. These conversations can be especially informative for L2 writing instruction, given its focus on the academic socialization of ESL for non-Western students. This article…

In this conceptual paper, borne from the experiences of two academic literacy lecturers at the NWU, we ask, regarding elements of assessment, how we can sensibly adapt an intervention-style writing course in a post-COVID higher education context. We propose a course correction model, applicable to academic literacy writing courses, to address the…

Composition studies often permits the capacious use of terminology, wherein projects (or people) are defined in terms of a receptacle into which all multilingual, translingual, transnational, international, global, cultural/diversity/difference specialties are thrown and often conflated. Because terminological fuzziness can be confusing and is…